what i did on my summer vacation and beyond

This is going to be a long post so fair warning.

i havent been sewing much but I have been busy.

 I now have pictures to go with the synopsis of last month.

I "fixed" the march block, I wasn't pleased with the big blank spot in the green on the bottom. I thought (at the time) it looked too bright so I added, what turned out to be a very fat hedgehog.                          Now, I'm not terribly pleased with the result but have it on good authority (Helen Thorkleson, I'm throwing you under the bus here) that he's adorable.                 Note to self #542.67 sew critters on a separate piece of felt then sew down.          I also added some greenish lace to extend the color upwards as it needed to travel a little. it doesn't look like it's stuck in that spot anymore and lets your eye travel into the block more.

 Here Is my lovely Dear daughter #2 with my mother both look rather pleased with themselves.
and no wonder Mara graduated with honors (one of them Presidential!)
and mom behaved herself even though  she had to endure an entire roman catholic church ceremony for the graduation sans commentary.

we are not religious and neither is my x husband but for whatever reason he felt it necessary to send DD#2 to a catholic all girls HS. I have pointed out a better use of that money would have been college but what are you going to do?
here we are at mom's house out front
before making the trip back to Seattle

my new "helpers" this is Violet. we decided to name her this, after the theory of black body radiation only being seen in the ultra-violet. As she is completely black this seemed appropriate

And here is Molly, her momma. Nothing special with he name its the one she came home with and she seems to like it just fine

old window

new window

 have I mentioned just how much I love my new windows?




 It's so lovely to be able to see clearly what is outside and not just a smeary blur




  also had to get busy with the garden as I missed most of my usual planting window in may.





 then there was buying a rental property  and getting that ready  for inhabitants




I also had another Witchy-Poo hat up my sleeve





 I still need to put it together but the hard part is done



the brim





 and the top



and since I was doing another hat





I could make a few more casket tops too




I still have to put those together too


 but I'm on it!

 sort of




christmas is right around the corner................

So! That happened.......

So hello out there, it's been a while.
It's been busy here at casa Bernstein

We got new windows last week (yay!)
I can't tell you, how wonderful it is, to be able to see out the front window again!
Not to mention all the others and the sliding doors that actually slide!
It makes me giddy just to open and shut them for the cat.

Then there was the trip to Chicago to see my youngest graduate high school, with high honors from the president, no less!

We then proceeded to pack up all her worldly possessions and drive her cross country, back to Seattle. Where she will take a simester off and start college next fall.

But before all that, I had what was supposed to be minor surgery in - out no problems, back on your feet in no time, mmmmmm, not so much.

Good news, I discovered I'm allergic to morphine/oxycodone etc.
Bad news, I learned this after surgery. So needless to say recovery took longer than expected.

So in all of that I didn't sew much.

CQJP 2016 march

So here is the march faerie
    cheeky girl is giving me guff about the     empty spot under her branch

I may have to fix that

Also that green ribbon run in the lower right with some more beads

No wonder the spider is running away

 these flowers are acrylic

 I love how this seam treatment turned out

 this one not so much

 and the hootie owl is unsure

I rather like this run too

2015 CQJP

I haven't finished it entirely

it still needs backing, batting and borders

but it is all together in one place at least

I have it hanging off the font curtain so I can look at it better.

my original plan was to have all 12 blocks together but that was too messy looking

so out came the seam ripper, again

I like the asymmetrical look of this configuration better

I gives your eye a place to rest as well as highlighting blocks.  what do you think? 

February CQJP is done

 this month felt like a gimmie
 not that i didn't enjoy it just that it seemed to simple

but in the end i just couldn't think of anything else to put on it so there it is

easy

or not
I can never tell usually these things tell me they are done ( and yes, I talk to my plants too) but this one didn't

or wouldn't

not as cheeky as the peach blossom faerie but still you get the picture

                                           or not

CQJP 2016 first block

 Today a mini tut on lighting in photography

I am not a professional and I don't claim to know anything

these are just my observations today

here we have January's Block under flash

notice the rich saturation of reds and the clear definition of almost everything

but the picture is a bit flat and lifeless

Here we have the block under the rooms lamplight

notice its a bit yellow

still well defined and you can see shadows from the raised aspects of the block

but its yellow








Here we have the block under natural light from the window flat on its back to gather as much as we can

so its bleached out by light now

but the objects on it are well defined

lets see what other trouble we can get into shall we?







here I've (mostly) taken the best of the lot

the block at an angle from the natural light from the window,

in this case it's from the right

so now we can see it in, not only full definition but full of those shadows that give it a little life

even though the colour saturation still leaves a bit to be desired

and then there are the closeups
here is some ribbon folding and a nice lampwork ladybug, you can make those store bought leaves a little jazzier by adding fly stitch stems

 I use the same method Gerry Kruger uses to make her birds and etc. to make mine

though I didn't go for an authentic bird I went with the threads that would match my block

 these fans filled the space nicely

I've been looking for a spot for this fellow for a while

over threaded chevron stitch with fly stitch ivy and beads


ok folks, shows over  ;)

CQJP the missing one

 So here's the thing

I missed one

so in an effort to rectify that mistake

I did this one in a bit of a hurry

and took for inspiration, again, the weather we’ve been having

and after 2 years of no snow woo-hoo! we got some, even down by us.
 though the poopie part is
we cant go skiing,

they've had the pass closed for avalanche remediation

so until they have that mess under control were stuck on this side of the mountains.

better than being stuck in miles long traffic or under piles of snow and trees
so there's that. the inner brat child just wants to go skiing.

happy new year

Most likely what I'll be doing for the evening

thank you all, for your kind words and continued support, they mean a lot to me

CQJP December

 So here is December, just under the wire


she's all in blue, again


this month no featured stitch but a lot of bugs


from the fly in the lower lefthand corner


to mrs Spider in the upper right

to the green beaded bug in the upper left

and our whole picture ready for the usual northwest winter

kinda drab

                  kinda rainy

                                     kinda cold

OH!        Happy Holidays to everyone too

November CQJP

 Here she is naked as a jay-bird

now you see this little dragonfly?

not a big motif right?

I want to show you how she changed the whole look of this block but I'll get to that later

here's where designing gets fun or frustrating depending on which side of the dime your on.

to counterbalance this big crochet flower I had to do a little fiddling which turned into a lot of fiddling


the white ferns are one part then came more fern and green SRE roses and white trim.

I knew I wanted fans on this block so here is the beaded one

 and here is the embroidered one, with more ferns, in green this time

and a nice bit of button floozy going on there as a seam treatment




and here's the fun part, I told you I'd get to it!

this block looks ok

but there's this big empty spot my eye keeps catching on up at the top

and with the block being so busy everywhere else

it draws your eye to it and doesn't let it go

Taa-Daa!

and this is where the dragonfly comes in to save the day

as you can see it's not a big motif

but it's just enough of a bridge to keep your eye moving around the block and not just stopping

right there

I might even put something small and brown, in that bit of blazing white, under the beaded fan as it's beginning to bother me now........

October CQJP/BJP done

 Little did I know at the beginning of this month

that this block,
covered in Holbein stitch this month,
would be perfectly placed for my daughters wedding.

there she is with my lovely dear darling  husband.
 this months BJP is the wired dragonfly on the left,

not much to look at but I was a bit busy this month


the other one I mad from what is left of a pair of cloisonne earrings that I lost the rest of the dangle to and a blue dyed pearl

a little more folded ribbon and many more beads

to finish off the many corners
holbein stitch creates









 a little more beading and some ribbonwork to round out the last little empty spots and there you go